UPDATED: Where Are Android Apps For The Chromebook Pixel and Acer R11?

Back in May, Google announced that Android Apps are coming to Chrome OS. This announcement was met with much jubilation by the Chrome community as a whole. At the same time, however, this has created an intense longing for the fall and the day when Chrome OS 53 hits the stable channel and Android apps are bestowed on a wider segment of the Chromebook market.

Since the announcement, we saw all of this come to fruition in the ASUS Chromebook Flip and those who have one have been able to begin testing this new, exciting functionality.

However, the owners of the other 2 devices slated to receive access to the Play Store – The 2015 Pixel and Acer R11 – have seemingly been left out of the fun. Granted, Google never gave us any hard dates on when the initial 3 would see Android apps, but June was referenced as a general time frame.

Here we are weeks later in mid-July and still only the ASUS Chromebook Flip has access to the Play Store.

This leads us to begin wondering what exactly is going on. There are undoubtedly numerous Pixel and R11 owners wondering the same thing.

Though we’ve heard little about the issue, our guess is Google has encountered a sizable bug that needs to be squashed before proceeding. And, while we don’t expect this to delay the September release of Chrome 53 on the stable channel, if this delay continues on through July, we have to begin wondering how serious this issue is and whether or not it will get resolved before September.

And, frankly, no one else seems to be asking publicly, so we wanted to do so formally.

You guess is as good as ours and Google doesn’t really owe us an explanation of the issue, but we are definitely hoping to see the Play Store on the Pixel and R11 very soon. I’m sure lots of people are anxiously waiting.

Chromebooks that will work with Android apps in June/July 2016: Android apps are now available on the M53 dev channel for the Asus Chromebook Flip. Soon, support for Android apps will extend to two more Chromebooks:

Acer Chromebook R11 / C738T

Google Chromebook Pixel (2015)

While this isn’t a definite answer, it gives us a little bit of time before we should be truly concerned. Thanks again +Kevin Tofel!

>> UPDATE 2

About Robby Payne

Tech junkie. Musician. Web Developer. Coffee Snob. Huge fan of the Google things. Founded Chrome Unboxed because so many of my passions collide in this space. I like that. I want to share that. I hope you enjoy it too.